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I found a pattern here for a beach robe over the summer. Well, actually, it was towards the end of the summer (our practically non-existent summer, that is) and decided I would love to make the kids each a robe for putting on after swimming lessons. They didn’t look difficult to make, so I ordered the PDF pattern, printed it out, and bought some beach towels from Costco. The towels sat and sat for ages until I finally had the time to make them. Might I say that all those little balls of towel fluff were everywhere! May I never see them again (at least for a while anyway).

My mom had given me a bunch of old fabric and upon digging through it, found the perfect match for Maya’s robe. I was kind of excited about making these because I was looking forward to making my own bias tape to use to trim them. That made it take a bit longer to make them, but I think they turned out really well.

At the end of Maya and Rylan’s swim classes, one of the other parents noticed me pulling out the robes for the kids and commented, “Nice plushy robes!” (And Dave started humming the “Rocky” theme song when he saw Rylan’s). Secretly I wanted to burst with pride telling him I had made them, but managed not to be a braggart! But here I am bragging anyway, because I am proud of them. Every time I make something it teaches me that I still have SO much more to learn, but I’m ok with that because then where would the fun be in it!

Yes, yes I know this is very late as Maya started preschool about a month and a half ago. I was kind of excited for her to go to preschool because I knew she would love it. After meeting her teacher at the open house earlier this year, I felt confident Maya would have a great time because her teacher is fantastic!

When she first started, the class was only an hour long, then they increased it to two hours, then finally after almost a month, the full two and a half hours. Let me tell you, it’s not a lot of time, especially when you’ve got two other kids to manage during this time. Her preschool isn’t near where we live, so going home and coming back isn’t a very good option. I looked nearby for a Strong start program because it’s free and drop-in and Rylan definitely could use it! Gavin I just keep wrapped up in my wrap and he generally sleeps most of the time.

I really wanted to make Maya a toddler sized backpack for preschool so I looked up on the internet for a tutorial to make one. I did purchase a PDF pattern to make it from. The fun part was then finding the perfect fabric for it. I had such a hard time deciding, but came up with this (it’s a Japanese fabric from superbuzzy.com) and it’s “Swedish school kids”. I also ordered this one in blue too because I wasn’t sure if the pink would be enough fabric to make this out of. I laid out all the pattern pieces prior to cutting out and they fit! I was excited because now I can make another backpack for Rylan!It turned out as well as I could have hoped, not too difficult. The tricky part was finding all the parts to go with it – the piping, (which I would probably just make myself next time), the webbing, the adjustable clips and a matching zipper. I ordered everything online and had to contain myself until it arrived. Since I really wasn’t getting out much at this point, it made everything easier to just order it all. I took the liberty of ordering other fabric while I was at it, so eventually I will get around to making things with those too!

I have been wanting to make Maya an apron for a while now, and got together with a friend so we could each make an apron. I love how cute it turned out. I did a velcro waist for it so that Maya can get it on and off herself!

I’ve been one with the sewing machine lately. I realized I’ve been waiting for Dave to take some pictures of me wearing some of the things I’ve made, but that never happens, especially when I look half decent. Oh well, they’ll get on here sometime.

So I’ve been redoing some of my maternity clothes. I’ve come across a lot of tutorials on how to refashion maternity clothes and also how to make your old clothes appropriate for maternity. I have quite a few old clothes I’ve set aside because they (obviously) don’t fit right now, but as I was going through some that have actually been sitting there since I was pregnant with Rylan, I kind of figured I wouldn’t be too upset to cut some up some of my old things. T-shirts that are a bit too short or maybe a bit tighter than they used to be (how does that happen??), tons of pants, and other various items that I will probably make into things for Maya.

I got a new sewing machine last week (wheeee!) and I’ve been getting to know it a bit better. I also ordered a bunch of fabric online and made a trip to the States to pick it up. It’s SO nice to get the fabric I want instead of making do with what I can find in 10 minutes at FABRICLAND (boooo 😦 ) while my kids terrorize the aisles. (This would be today’s experience). Anyhow, I really wanted to make some baby blankets and I love minky, so I bought some of that with some really nice flannel and then some other nice cotton prints. I was able to get 2 blankets out of each yard of minky, so I ended up making four in total. I’m also planning to make Maya an apron so I got some kitchen-appropriate (cupcake) material for that. The other fabric I ordered was some really nice jersey to make a couple of wrap maternity tops. I made one on my old sewing machine and it turned out really well. I was waiting to make the other one until I got my new machine, but I think my motivation has waned a bit. It wasn’t difficult to make and I know my new machine can definitely handle it better, but I think I need to figure out how to wrap it really well since I’m always worried about gaps through the wrapped part. It really is a cute top and surprisingly fits very well. (I’m sure the fact that it’s stretchy has something to do with it.)

Before Rylan was born I decided to recover my infant car seat. That turned out really well and this time I have a bouncy chair that I’ve used for both kids. I thought I should maybe recover that one too. I think it would be ok to manage seeing as I’ve already done a car seat and that was a lot more involved. We’ll see about that one.

We’re going on vacation the beginning of May to Hawaii, and I thought it would be nice to wear skirts there since I don’t really have anything other than pants for bottoms. Of course I’ll have to convert some skirts or just get some material to make some with.

Today I whipped up (seriously, it was easy!) a skirt for Maya (a purple princess dress, so she says) out of some of the leftover material from my wrap top. She loves it and I was VERY impressed that it turned out well in the end. I’m kind of a lazy sewer, meaning if I don’t have to pin, press or measure much of anything then I’m happy! Of course it usually doesn’t produce the greatest results, but if I’m saving time…

I’ve also learned how to use elastic thread to do smocking (or “shirring”). Pretty fun and addicting. I have a few more small ideas of things to make.

I love it! Lovely electronics!

Kind of boring and square-looking when on

I used elastic thread around the sleeves and bottom to make it more fitted

I finally got around to making this dress for Maya. I’ve had the pattern and material and all the supplies to make this dress for ages, but didn’t really have the motivation to haul out the sewing machine and make the mess to get this done. It wasn’t hard to make and turned out really well, even the zipper! I especially love the flower buttons. When I saw them, I knew they’d be just perfect for this project. I do hate the perma-crease down the front, but I’m sure it will eventually disappear with washings.

The colours remind me of springtime, so perhaps that’s what woke the sleeping sewing demon to get this done in order for Maya to be able to wear it during the nicer weather. She wore it to church yesterday, and I was so proud!